The Simpsons: Hit
The following document aims to outline the prerelease coverage of The Simpsons: Hit & Run and the changes made to it during late development. Announcement The earliest report of a "mission-based driving game" starring the Simpsons can be traced back to a brief article published by GameSpot on April 24, 2003. Not many details are revealed aside from the cast, the gist of gameplay and the platforms it will be released on. Given the short length and the "As part of its release of pre-E3 information ..." portion of the text, it is likely that this information was simply relayed from a press release document. Press Exhibiton Hit & Run would later make an appearance at E3 2003, running from May 12 to 14, within the vast portfolio of then upcoming games from its publisher, Vivendi Universal. Not much else is known about the state of the game at this stage. A GameSpot feature from July 8, 2003 allegedly describes a GameCube build of the game showcased at a non-descript press event from Nintendo. The demo featured appears to have been limited to the first three missions of the first level, which seem to be unchanged from the final product. It is suggested that gameplay elements and interactions appear to have been finalized, although camera issues are present. Previews A significant number of publications were granted access to late builds of the game since E3 and until September for previewing purposes. Contents have been sorted by outlet chronologically. IGN (May 2003) Sizzle Reel The first footage released to the public was a sizzle reel made from the GameCube version published by IGN on May 15, 2003 shortly after its appearance at E3. The video itself depicts driving and minimal character control within the first, sixth, fourth and second levels, starring Homer, Bart and Marge respectively. Despite lacking sound, a handful of aesthetic differences can be noticed when compared to the final product. * A green radar is in place of the transparent minimap and the "Hit & Run" meter. The textures can still be found in early copies of the Windows version. * Stop signs cannot be destroyed, but can be rather pushed as a single entity. * Light blue chevrons can be seen highlighting Marge's vehicular path instead of red and green arrows. * The phone booth has a 2D sprite of a telephone on top instead of a rotating 3D model. In addition to this, the phone booths are in different locations. In the final game, the booth that is seen across the road from the Simpsons House in front of the white house is on the left side of the house and the one outside the stadium is a lot further to the right, beside the tunnel. * The evergreen trees shown in Level 1 and Level 4 look more cartoon-styled and less detailed than they are in the final. * There is seemingly no indication whether the player is about to get a "Hit & Run". * There appears to be a collector card on top of the Wiggum house in Level 1, as seen at the very start of the video. As it's impossible to actually get on top of most houses in the final game, it makes sense that they'd move it to the back yard. * The light cone of the street lights in Level 6 appear to be at an angle, as opposed to facing straight down. * The street lights in Level 4 are not lighted up. * Environment maps appear to be more subtle, or not implemented yet. This gives the cars a rather more cartoony look. * Milhouse, Nelson and Ralph sport 2D sprites over their heads instead of a sprite of two flags and they seem to be stood in different locations than in the actual game as shown in Level 6, one of the street races appear to be set at the gas station down the stairway from the Noiseland Arcade, but the character who leads the street race cannot be seen due to the wall of the stairway blocking the view and in Level 4, one of the street races appear to be set at the blue house in front of the entrance of the Springfield Cemetery, but again the character holding this race cannot be seen due to it being to far away in the distance. Level 7 Screenshot In addition, a batch of screenshots were submitted to the game's PlayStation 2 hub on the site on May 6, 2003. While most of them are HUD-less captures which are very similar to the final game, a particularly intriguing one is present, depicting Homer in front of the Springfield Elementary School on a vastly different rendition of the seventh level. * A completely different radar/minimap can be seen. The texture for the blue circle is still present in early copies of the retail Windows release. * The building itself is textured with more varied colors instead of the mostly light-brown and yellow palette found in the final. * The flag is purple-tinted with yellow spots as opposed to red and white. * Ralph Wiggum can be seen sporting a 2D sprite over his head indicating he handles one of the racing sub-missions. In the retail version, zombies are the NPC who prompt you to race in line with the whole Halloween aesthetic of the level meaning that Milhouse, Nelson and Ralph were originally meant to be the race hosts of the level but were all replaced by zombies. * In the final product, the bridge leading to the richer side of Springfield was blocked off with military installation and the Power Plant is shut off with a metal door, essentially leaving Homer with half-a-level to explore. The illustration on the minimap suggests that Level 7 was not intended to be this way, a fact which appears to be substantiated by some of the unused content. * The Springfield Downs advert seen in Levels 2 and 5 can be seen on the billboard at the Grocery Store as in the final game, the billboard is replaced with a sign reading "KZMB All Zombie Radio". The Next Level Dated July 7, 2003, Next Level's preview of Hit & Run for the PlayStation 2 features a handful of early screenshots. While it details the game's storyline, the remainder of the article is just a paraphrasing the announcement press release. Most of the imagery included is not of much interest except for the first snapshot, which has Bart standing on one of the second level's setpieces alongside the early radar seen in the previous video. Interestingly, at least three out of six pictures can be found on IGN's page for the game, suggesting that they may have been provided by the publisher. E3 Demo An E3 demo gameplay video shows a mostly complete version of the game, although with a few noticeable changes from the final game: * Much like in the IGN video, environment maps don't seem to have been implemented yet. In addition, there doesn't seem to be any lens flare effects from the sun in the first three levels of the game. * The unused Station Wagon found in the files of the game can be seen driving past Homer in Level 1. It is shown in place of the Glass Truck found in the final game. * The vent from the Duff Truck at the Kwik-E-Mart has no detail and does not produce any smoke, there is no sound effect heard when jumping off the vent and also, Homer does not say "Wheee!!" when he jumps off of the vent. * Much like in early cutscenes, the family's models are similar to their appearances in the cutscenes in The Simpsons: Road Rage. * Wrenches have a darker color scheme having more of a brown color than a yellow color. * A lot of sound effects heard in the demo sound very different than they do in the final, sounds heard when jumping, entering a vehicle, kicking objects, etc. * Collector Cards appear to have a question mark symbol on them. * Wasp Cameras are not as detailed and appear to be brighter. They lack the metal texture they have in the final game. In addition, their wings are not opaque, and no electricity can be seen from their stinger. * Piles of tires can be seen near the Tire Fire which are not found in the final game as tires only appear inside the yard itself in the final game. * There is a wrench seen floating above the Tire Fire in Level 1, it is unknown why it's there. * The lamp-posts on the street dividers near the Bowlarama had an entirely different design. * In Level 1, Milhouse's race has been relocated from near the Kwik-E-Mart to near Moe's house in the final game. * The sky in Level 2 is cloudier and has rays of light shining from the sky. * The sky in Level 6 has a larger moon with more noticeable clouds, and the maroon colour is less vibrant than it is in the final. Interestingly, this background is used for the background of interiors during the level. * The Character Costumes icon in Moe's Tavern appears to be at the right side of the room in front of the Duff poster rather than at the left side of the room. * In Level 6, the interior of the observatory appears to use the same lighting used in the building in Level 3, there is also a dusk background shown outside the window instead of the usual night background. It is unknown whether this is Level 6 or not, but it could be possible that Bart is being played as in Level 3. 'IGN (August 2003)' On August 8 and August 23, 2003, IGN released a whopping 17 videos depicting the PlayStation 2 and GameCube revisions of the game. These range from snippets of gameplay to full cinematics, all from the first level. Of upmost interest are the prerendered cutscenes, some of which are noticeably different to the ones in the final game. Opening Cutscene * The logo has different lettering as opposed to the final which resembles the one used on the show. The trademark symbol was swapped for a Copyright. * The family's models are very similar to their appearances in the cutscenes from The Simpsons: Road Rage rather than the softer renditions seen in the final game. * Homer gasps before destroying the wasp camera. * The wasp has additional sound effects on its demise. Flowers by Irene * Homer is seen eating a donut he reached from his back, whereas in the final version he is sitting still and drinking a Duff Beer. * The TV is zoomed in, as opposed to the final in which the knobs and grill are visible. * Much like the Simpsons family in the previous cinematic, Kent Brockman resembles his Road Rage appearance. * The illustrations Brockman is describing are slightly different, featuring additional elements and different gradients. * The crowd attending Mayor Quimby's speech is much quiet in the early render. * The "exclusive footage" of the Black Van were removed along with the robot being eaten by an alligator. * A music cue plays when Marge tells Homer he is sexy (when he's paranoid). Worth Playing Published on August 31, 2003, Worth Playing's coverage of Hit & Run is perhaps the most interesting, as it features a wealth of self-produced screenshots from the PlayStation 2 version, some of which show discrepancies not seen in the previous materials. Referred as a "limited beta copy", this particular demo allegedly includes a "character select screen" with a limited roster and not much else. Mission Briefing * The comic strip panel was replaced with pictograms illustrating the objectives. * The font was squished and resized. Phone Booth * "Stability" was changed to "Handling" in the vehicle stats layout. * The font was squished and resized. NPC Icons The gallery also reveals that the characters were displayed on the interface as 3D renders rather than 2D sprites. Manual Present in the manual for the PlayStation 2 (and the Xbox, to some extent) releases are a few not-quite-final screenshots displaying more of the 3D rendered character portraits. Please note that the last picture only appears in the former, as the latter uses an updated picture with the actual 2D mugshot. A date on the Load Game menu detailed on one of the first pages suggests that these pictures might be from late July/early August 2003 There is also a screenshot showing an early version of the radar. The title screen also appears to use Homer's Road Rage model. The model can be found in the final in the files for the main menu. The text that appears when you get Hit & Run also appears to be different, being all in caps and in a slightly different font. The radar also appears to be a lighter colour around the edge and the road is white instead of grey. The same changes apply to this screenshot. 2003 Prerelease Disc Assets Two prerelease asset discs of the game was found in 2016, which contained several information changed in the final game, dated around June to August 2003. There are several pink notes regarding editing out or correcting some parts or red notes indicating changes. Storyline Changes * Originally, the newspapers displayed on a loading screen contained a second variation instead of one. Some actually went through slight changes. ** Level 1's second headline was "First Day of Spring - Ants, Nitpickers reach last minute accord" along with a screenshot from "Trilogy of Error". ** Level 2's original first headline was either "Nameless Assailant Harasses Burns - Says Burns" or "Local Man Chased By Dogs - Mistakes Harmless Pizza Van for Sinister Surveillance Van". ** Level 3's original headlines were "Slow News Day Grips Springfield" and "Local Truant Gone Truant - Honor Student Searches for Dumber Brother". ** Level 4's headlines were "Mysterious Shape Found In Farmer's Field - Scientists Perplexed; Some Say Signs Of Rapture - Flights Booked", which was later shortened down, and "Missing Boy Found Safe - Has No Memory of Abduction". ** Level 5's original headlines were "Springfield Goes Crazy for Crazy New Cola" and "Boring Housewife Unpopular - Marge Simpson Attacks Another Fun Fad". ** Level 6's original headline was "Local Crackpots Warn of "Alien Cola Plot"" with a picture of Apu and Bart shocked. ** Level 7's original headline was "Local Housewife Says "I Told You So"" with a picture of Marge. Mission Changes * Bonus missions did not exist originally and were part of the storyline. * "Petty Theft Homer" had an unused lose-the-tail segment. * "The Fat and Furious" originally involved driving to the Power Plant's parking lot to find Smithers, who was parked next to a Surveillance Van. * Originally, Bart needed a toilet plunger instead of a satellite dish and hemorrhoid cream for the Truckasaurus. "Dial B for Blood" was originally part of the storyline in order to get the cream. * There was originally a mission where Bart escaped in the Ferrini from the Truckasaurus in a boss fight. * "Bonfire of the Manatees" originally ended with Apu talking to Lisa and Lisa making her own way to the Observatory. * "For A Few Donuts More" involved destroying the Donut Truck. The mission stage dialogue still exists for this in the script. * "The Return of the Nearly Dead" involved racing Grampa to Jasper instead of racing Chief Wiggum to the Retirement Castle". * "Wolves Stole My Pills" was given by Jasper originally and involved him explaining the crop circle. Relating to this, there is an unused stage message that says "Talk to Jasper" that still exists in the script in the final game's files. * "Incriminating Caffeine" took place near the Monorail Station and involved avoiding black sedans while chasing the Cola Truck. * "Duff For Me, Duff For You" involved avoiding black sedans while getting to the Duff Brewery. * Much like Truckasaurus in Level 2, the T-Rex Fossil shown in the Level 5 cutscene was originally a boss fight in addition to a cutscene. * Originally, in "Alien Autopsy Part I", Mr. Burns sold the remaining nuclear waste to the Black Ferrini driver. * The final cutscene of Level 7 was much different - When the UFO crashed, a tentacle came out of the hatch, before shriveling up, with Homer mocking Lisa's belief of nuclear waste. It then cut to Kent Brockman interviewing Homer, who tells him he has "big plans" for the future. Two weeks later, Homer's house is surrounded by Rigelians, some of whom are stealing from the house, while he naps. Miscellaneous Changes * There was originally an option to watch the credits in the Options menu. * The HUD icons for characters were originally in the same CGI seen in manuals. Category:The Simpsons: Hit & Run